Could Ancient Pottery Improve Spacecraft Tiles?

Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 2, 2012 @01:49AM from the blast-from-the-past dept.

astroengine writes "Earlier this year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded nearly $500,000 to scientists from the Getty Conservation Institute, Stanford's National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) and the Aerospace Corporation to study the chemical and physical properties of ancient Attic pottery. Why? Well, the project will improve our understanding of iron-spinel chemistry, which is critical to the advanced ceramics used for thermal protection in aerospace applications, such as in the heat shield tiles used by spacecraft during atmospheric reentry."

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Finally... by vikingpower · 2012-01-02 01:58 · Score: 5, Interesting

... a good reason to tell those kids in high school there IS good reason to occupy their minds with ( Latin and ) Greek antiquity. Which is not to be confounded, as the OP demonstrates, with antiquities at the fair.

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Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Could Ancient Pottery Improve Spacecraft Tiles? by rossdee · 2012-01-02 02:27 · Score: 5, Funny

Sure, but you'll probably need Daniel Jackson to translate the writing, and Samantha Carter to work out the technical details...